1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a fiber treating composition. More precisely, the invention relates to a hardly-foamable and self-emulsifiable, fiber treating composition which can improve the properties of fibers to make them have excellent heat resistance, good steam ironing resistance and good dimension stability, without affecting their excellent sensory feel and dyeability properties.
2. Description of the Related Art
Techniques of treating fibers with crosslinking compounds for the purpose of improving the heat resistance of the fibers are known. For crosslinking fibers, a padding method, a bathing method and others are employed in the art.
In the known methods, crosslinking treatment through padding is generally effected after dyeing. After the crosslinking treatment through padding, however, the fibers are not washed in many cases for the purpose of simplifing the process and of keeping well the appearance and the quality of the processed fibers. Therefore, in such padding treatment for crosslinking, the non-reacted crosslinking compound and the catalyst used often remain in the processed fibers, by which the fastness and other physical properties of the fibers are worsened.
As opposed to this, crosslinking through bathing is advantageous in that it may be effected simultaneously with dyeing. In addition, crosslinking through bathing is generally followed by washing. Therefore, in such bathing treatment for crosslinking, the non-reacted crosslinking compound and the catalyst used could be removed from the processed fibers, and the fastness and other physical-properties of the fibers are prevented from being worsened.
For crosslinking fibers, known is a method of using an aldehyde compound such as dialdehyde or the like as the crosslinking compound to thereby acetalize the hydroxyl groups in fibers.
However, as requiring the specific acetalization step in addition to the dyeing step, the method comprising an acetalization treatment is problematic in terms of process costs. In addition, the method is also problematic in that the processing device is often corroded by the high-concentration strong acid to be used for the acetalization treatment, that dyes could hardly diffuse into the inside of the acetalized fibers and therefore the fibers are difficult to dye thick, and that the dyed fibers are often faded by the non-reacted dialdehyde compound still remaining therein after the acetalization. Because of these problems, the properties of the fibers as processed according to the acetalization method are often not uniform.
In addition, the acetalization on an industrial scale is often accompanied by still other problems in that it is extremely difficult to determine what type of dialdehyde compound shall be used for the acetalization and to determine how the acetalization shall be effected to what degree. Depending on the degree of crosslinking through the acetalization, the color of the dyed fibers often varies, and, as the case may be, the feel of the fibers could not be stabilized. As a result, the commercial value of the processed fibers is often extremely low.
From the viewpoints noted above, it has heretofore been desired to develop a method for crosslinking fibers, which can be attained simultaneously with dyeing the fibers, for which the process and the facilities can be simplified and the costs can be reduced, in which the feel and the physical properties of the fibers processed are prevented from being worsened, and in which the fibers being treated are well crosslinked while being dyed to have a uniform and sharp color tone, and to develop crosslinking compounds for the method and also a fiber treating composition that contains the compound.
Given that situation, EP 0801157A2 describes a technique of crosslinking ethylene-vinyl alcohol copolymer fibers with a compound of a general formula (I): ##STR2##
wherein R.sub.1, R.sub.2, R.sub.3 and R.sub.4 each represent an alkyl group; or R.sub.1 and R.sub.2, and R.sub.3 and R.sub.4 may form a ring to be an alkylene group; R.sub.5 represents a hydrogen atom or an alkyl group; and n represents a number of from 2 to 10, PA1 (a) a compound of the following general formula (I) (this is hereinafter referred to as compound (I)): ##STR3## PA1 R.sub.1, R.sub.2, R.sub.3 and R.sub.4 each, independently, represent an alkyl group; PA1 or R.sub.1 and R.sub.2, and R.sub.3 and R.sub.4 may form a ring to be an alkylene group; PA1 R.sub.5 represents a hydrogen atom or an alkyl group; and PA1 n represents a number of from 2 to 10, and PA1 (b) a nonionic surfactant. PA1 where R.sub.1, R.sub.2, R.sub.3, R.sub.4, R.sub.5, and n are as defined above.
under a specific condition to thereby improve the heat resistance, the steam ironing resistance, the dimension stability and other physical properties of the resulting crosslinked fibers.
However, there remains a need for improved fiber treatment compositions.